Thanatocal Volution
by SashaSeer
Summary: Naruto is dead. Killed by Orochimaru in the Forest of Death, it sparks a chain reaction that has lead to the advent of the Fourth Great Shinobi War. Yet that is not the end of his story, as someone decides that the young Uzumaki can't be dead... Not if she has any say in the matter...


_Chapter 1: Aftermath_

Disclaimer: Y'know the drill, I don't own the characters or materials, if I did, they'd still be printing it for another 3 years. This here is another one of ABitterPill's challenge fics, but it will also include elements of Third-Fang's challenge, and I gotta say this one was interesting to write, so yeah enjoy.

=0000000=

**_Many years ago:_**

"We can't do this…"

"Oh I assure you, we most certainly can."

"But should we?"

"I understand your reservation, I have them too. But we are at war, and with this, we'll be able to stand amongst our brothers and sisters in the Senju as equals."

"I just pray we are doing the right thing…"

=0000000=

**_40 years ago:_**

"Tobi hasn't left his office for weeks…"

"He's probably still coping…"

"That's what I thought as well, until I checked up on him…"

"Aren't you a bit too important for that?"

"Don't think I can't see what you're doing Madara. You know as well as I do what he's making."

"Yes Hashirama, I do. Mito and I both thought that he needed closure."

"So you decided to give him that jutsu?"

"It was to show him…"

"Show him what?"

"That even with her clan's accomplishments, not even the mighty Uzumakis could stop death…"

=0000000=

**_13 days ago:_**

"Bastard! Leave them alone!"

"Interesting… So you're the Kyuubi brat?"

"Sasuke, look out!"

"Let go of Him!"

"Aaarrgh!"

"You are quickly becoming an annoyance, boy."

"I'll never let you get away with this!"

BAM! CRACK!

"Stupid girl, if you had stayed out of the way I wouldn't have had to hurt you."

"I'LL KILL YOU!"

"I see you are going to be a thorn in my side… Very well then, you would've most likely hindered my plans in the long term… Sarutobi-sensei should've taught you better."

"NARUTO!"

=0000000=

**_20 minutes later:_**

"Orochimaru!"

"Ah, Anko, I see you're time at Konoha has paid off for you…"

"Cut the crap, I saw what you did, where is the Uchiha?"

"Oh, worried that Sasuke-kun has taken your place as my favourite? Well no need to fret, you are still my most beloved pupil, nobody can change that. As for Sasuke-kun, my subordinates should have him out of Konoha in a matter of moments."

"At the very least I can make sure that you don't join them!"

"Ho? I take that means you'll bring me in for questioning then?"

"No, I'll just kill you, then question your corpse!"

"If you're talking about the Second's jutsu, you should know that it wouldn't work on me…"

"Believe me I do, with the crap you've done to yourself, I doubt any of the usual interrogation methods would work. But you forget about what inspired the Second to create that jutsu."

*sigh* "I thought I taught you better than that Anko, but if you're going to become as much of a hindrance as that boy was, then you will meet the same fate."

"Not without you, _Sensei_…"

=0000000=

**_Now:_**

Thirteen days.

That's how long it had taken for the struggle against Oto to explode into the Fourth Shinobi War. After the small funeral that had been held (less than 20 people turned out for the deceased two), it was supposed to have been over and done with a week ago; Konoha was to retaliate against Oto, wiping the village out, proving that even after what the Hidden Sound had done to the Hidden Leaf during the Chunin exams, Konoha was still a force to be reckoned with. Even if they were a ninja village, due to their relatively recent addition to the elemental nations, and the fact that most of its citizens were ex-Mercenaries, the attack upon them should've been a simple one, even if their leader was a member of the Sannin. What nobody in Konoha had imagined however was that their allies Suna would turn against the Leaf and side with Oto. Once news of the betrayal spread back to the village itself, one of the Suna Gennin had revealed himself to be a jinchuriki and unleashed his beast within the confines of Konoha itself. The amount of lives lost until the beast had been brought down dwarfed the amount that'd been lost during the previous war.

Once that'd been accomplished many thought the fighting would come to a close soon, especially since Konoha's main targets within Oto, Orochimaru and his captive Sasuke, had relocated long before Suna's forces entered the fray. By then, though, it had been too late. Iwa spies within both Konoha and Suna had relayed to the Tsuchikage that both were significantly weakened by the conflict, as such when the Konoha forces (included amongst them were the Copy Ninja Kakashi Hatake, and Jiraya of the Sannin) had discovered that Orochimaru had fled almost a week ago, they had packed up only to be caught, along with the Suna forces, by an Iwa ambush.

All of this had taken thirteen days.

=0000000=

**_Hokage's Office:_**

He couldn't fathom it.

Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage and leader of the Hidden Leaf Village, sat and stared at the village, savouring its beauty from this angle. It was a sight he'd miss.

Hiruzen's attempt at taking his mind off the reports upon his desk, and his actions due to them, had only succeeded in bringing up the train of thought he'd hope to distract by reading the reports in the first place.

Itachi Uchiha, known throughout the Elemental Nations as a clan killer, and tied with two others as Konoha's worst criminal in existence, was in fact a loyal member of Konoha's ANBU. Though he had killed his entire clan, sans one, and had been sent to spy on both the Konoha criminal Orochimaru, as well as the organisation said criminal was a member of, Itachi had only done so on the condition that his younger brother Sasuke be protected. The younger brother that was now a captive of Orochimaru's and whose location was a complete unknown, oh yes, Itachi would just love that when he found out.

_It's a miracle that I haven't died from the stress of this job…_

Sighing, and giving another silent prayer that they either find Sasuke, or that Itachi never hears that they'd lost him, Hiruzen decided to get his mind back on the reports in front of him.

One was a report he had received moments ago about what his troops were facing in the struggle against both the Hidden Sound and Sand villages. To think that Onoki would actually attack both sides after the debacle of the Second and Third Wars, the old gnome must be going senile after all. Hiruzen could understand it, both villages had lost their main deterrent against a bijuu attack, add to that both sides, once allies, had worn down each other to the point that, if either of them survived this, they would have to resort to using their Gennin more to stay amongst the major five villages. Still, for Iwa to attack now felt far too much like kicking someone when they were down.

Yet it was the other report upon his desk that had the Third in such a state of incomprehension. This one contained details on the state of the village after putting an end to the Ichibi situation; lives lost, property that had been damaged, what the council wanted to do now that the major problem had been dealt with, trouble caused by either the survivors or by some of the prisoners that managed to slip free in the confusion, etc. It was eerily similar to the report twelve years hence after the Kyuubi incident, though back then he had been weary with grief and guilt, over not only the loss of his wife, but also over his powerlessness to stop Minato and Kushina from sacrificing themselves to stop the beast. Now, however, Hiruzen Sarutobi was weary with solely guilt; the grief he had a handle on until after this situation in Oto was solved (if at all). How could he look that boy's parents in the eyes after what had happened. Time and again the Third had failed the blond bundle of energy, against the oppressive actions of the villagers, against the sorrows of living a solitary life, against the many hardships that the boy time and again had to endure, and yet, when the Hokage had been needed the most, against a foe that should've been dealt with years before, Hiruzen had failed the boy for the last time. Before receiving the report before him, Hiruzen had truly believed that he couldn't have failed the boy anymore if he had tried; obviously that was not the case.

…Konoha Cemetery: 1 open grave; Naruto Uzumaki, body stolen…

That was what the report had said.

Why anybody would wish to desecrate his corpse, why they would try to hurt him even after achieving peace, all of it was beyond the elderly man. Onoki he understood, if their positions were reversed, Hiruzen might've done the same, but there was never any justifiable reason to disrespect the dead, even less of one to abuse a child. Hiruzen had believed that his people were better than such acts, that Naruto had only had to endure neglect and scorn from the majority (it was a bad thing to hope for, but the alternative was much worse for his heart). Those words had proven him wrong.

The report had been the final straw for Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage and leader of the Hidden Leaf Village; once the situation in Oto was resolved, and Orochimaru dealt with, he would step down as Hokage, permanently.

_I just hope it's not too late to do some good…_

=0000000=

**_Elsewhere:_**

"Are you sure it was wise to bring Sasuke-kun with us?" Kabuto, an Oto spy within Konoha's ranks, and second in command of the Hidden Sound, asked the Snake Sannin.

Said snake merely chuckled, before giving a bemused "Probably not."

The two of them, along with their captive, had receded to their most familiar of hidden bases; it was the Oto equivalent to the Hokage Tower within Konoha. Whilst many would assume that the small mercenary village within the Land of Sound was all that there was of Oto, they were sorely mistake. The Hidden Sound Village was spread out across the Elemental Nations, some were small villages or towns that were loyal to Orochimaru, were as the majority were hidden bases that the snake had established during his time with Akatsuki. The one that they had come to was one of Orochimaru's favourites, partially due to its location in the Land of Fire, almost directly under the nose of his former teacher, and partially because his greatest weapons against his enemies was located here.

"Still," the Sannin continued, "whether he came to us of his own will, or otherwise, our goals haven't changed. More over, now we can be certain the process won't kill him."

"And by 'we' you mean 'me', correct?" Kabuto posed exasperatedly, to which Orochimaru replied, "What do you think…" before walking out of Kabuto's lab.

Yet he'd not walked three steps when the spy asked "And if he should resist us?"

"If Sasuke-kun is compatible, such an event would be unthinkable for him."

"But if he isn't?"

"Then I'm sure the Sound Five'll have fun with him… Hmhmhmhmmmm…"

As this exchange between the former Konoha shinobi was taking place, just in the next room, an unconscious, and infected, Sasuke Uchiha kept replaying the events of the Forest of Death over and over within his mind.

_Sakura…_

_"Sasuke, look out!"_

_Naruto…_

_"I'LL KILL YOU!"_

He and his captors both were completely unaware of the changes happening to his body as a result.

=0000000=

**_Konoha Hospital, Physical Rehabilitation Centre:_**

It was a miracle that the hospital was spared during the Ichibi attack, not only was it highly unlikely that the majority of the patients admitted would've escaped the destruction, but the amount of new arrivals had over filled the available rooms. Some issues were handled easily enough, and most were able to leave almost as soon as they arrived. Yet it was cases like Councilman Haruno's daughter that caused the most problems, space wise.

For most, she had been received as an omen of bad fortune; the rest of her team were either confirmed dead, or were treated as such by the general public, as soon as she'd been put into a stable condition, the Ichibi had attacked, and now the vast majority of the patients being admitted were those that had suffered in some manor similar to hers (a physical injury that prevented them from returning to their duties as ninja). If that wasn't bad enough for the poor girl, after her teammate's funeral, she hadn't said more than two words, and barely responded to any attempts by the doctors to help her recover.

"She just sits there, staring out the window…" was what they had all said after checking in on her. The few visitors that'd come round to see Sakura hadn't been able to get more than a small, sad smile out of the girl. The only time where she'd been more expressive was the night before the Iwa ambush in Oto; it'd just slipped out after being asked an innocent question. Ino had tried to get Sakura to talk to her, with Shikamaru and Chouji, both of whom were there for emotional support, lazing about and eating the hospital food respectively, all of this as the hospital was starting to send the visitors home for the night. After a nurse had informed them that they had about ten minutes, Ino'd asked her friend/rival "Sakura, you know you can talk with us, right?" Sakura had merely looked at her hands.

With that, the three clan heirs decided to give her some more time to herself. They were almost out the door when Sakura had spoken. "I couldn't do anything…" It was a shock to the three, as Sakura hadn't said anything about what'd happened (save to the ANBU when they'd questioned her) since the funeral.

"Nobody expected you to…" Shikamaru said, as the three sat back down beside her bed. "The guy was a monster, enough that it got our dads to finally get serious again when they left. It was just bad luck that you faced that freak instead of anyone else."

"You don't understand…" she mumbled to the Nara in response, only to have Ino chime in as well.

"The idiot's right Sakura, we don't blame you for what happened."

"Yeah, we're all here for you." Chouji submitted, as compassionately as possible, only for Sakura to snap back at all three of them.

"NO! You don't understand!" she yelled out, rage taking hold of her features. "It was just like before, at the bridge. All I could do was cry and get in the way." she choked, tears starting to swell in her eyes at the memory, "And when I'd thought Sasuke had died…" Sakura couldn't finish her sentence as she broke down in sobs. Not baring to see her once proud rival be emotionally shattered, Ino moved to comfort the wounded kunoichi only to recoil as Sakura pushed her back and stared into the Yamanaka's eyes with such a ferocity Ino would later describe it as having stared into the eyes of a dieing leopard; scared, hurt, and alone, but still very much a threat at the slightest provocation.

When she'd finally gotten herself back under control, Sakura continued. "Worse, if it weren't for me, those two would still be here…"

"What d'you mean?" Ino asked her.

"I tried to help, I tried to protect Sasuke from that monster, and I got… hurt." at that Sakura scoffed at her own stupidity. "Naruto rushed in, he was so angry, but all it did was _inconvenience_ that… that… snake…" Everyone there could taste the venom in her voice when Sakura described how Orochimaru saw Naruto's final act.

The last thing she said before falling back into the silence that'd consumed her waking hours since the funeral made them realise that even if she were to ever walk again, the young girl that had been their classmate for over 3 years at the Academy was gone, much to the delight of the person lying before them.

"I was weak, worse, I was useless. I relied on them and now they're gone…"

_Never again…_

=0000000=

**_One Week Later:_**

It hadn't taken long for news of the Fourth Shinobi War to spread to all parts of the Elemental Nations. It took even less for other villages to send their own ninja into the fray, either to help or hinder the already present armies. Even then, and with the resources that'd become available should they win, Kiri and Kumo were adamant about NOT sending in their ninja to engage any side. This didn't, however, stop them sending in one or two teams with either a reconnaissance or sabotage mission so as the war would end favourably for them.

The situation itself was becoming that much more difficult for the Konoha ninja present. Even with the reinforcements, both native and foreign to Konoha, they were rapidly losing ground. Already they had been pushed back to the border of the Land of Sound. Worse still, the casualties which had already consisted of almost a quarter of the original Oto Invasion force, was now climbing rapidly to about half of the total Konoha warfront. If something didn't change, and soon, the Konoha-allied forces were going to have to retreat back to their respective villages.

For Suna, war had been the absolute worst outcome for them. Though they had been one of the Five Great Villages, for some time after the Third Shinobi War, it was in name only. The reason why they had sided with Oto during the initial struggle was that the offer of gaining half of Konoha's revenue was too great to pass up. However, that was when the plan was to invade Konoha, and take its resources by force; Suna had even told Oto that they'd only support them in an invasion against the Leaf. Yet when the tables were reversed, and Konoha made an attack against Oto, there were really only two options left for the Hidden Sand; help Konoha and nothing changes for their crumbling village, or stand with Oto against the Leaf, and honour the deal the two villages had made. They had chosen the latter option. And it had worked, at first. Word, and a message, had reached the Suna ninja still within Konoha due to the Chunin Exams, and thus they unleashed the Ichibi, believing that with Konoha's elite Jounin out at Oto, Konoha would bow to Suna's might. Yet, due to the method of unleashing Shukaku's full power, Gaara was left venerable and exposed, and thus was taken down by some of the remaining powerhouses of the Hidden Leaf.

After that, things just kept going down hill for Suna as the Konoha forces managed to overpower their own. So when Oto finally fell to Konoha, and Suna got the order to retreat, the Iwa attack was the exact opposite thing that Suna needed at the moment. Now that it was a full blown war, Suna couldn't afford to do anything more, yet the Kazekage could no longer give the order to retreat as the Sand no longer had any means of repelling the Stone. Then there were the small attack raids from Kiri, chipping away at Suna's forces. Add to the fact that most of the smaller villages that were apart of the Leaf-Sand alliance, or even those that used to be allied with just Suna, all abandoned the Sand when news of their betraying the Leaf had spread. Things were looking mighty dire for Suna, that if things remained the way they were, the Hidden Sand was bound to do something desperate.

Iwa on the other hand, despite suffering decidedly large losses during the previous Shinobi War, had still retained enough fighting fit warriors to have taken out sizeable chunks of the other villages' armies, even managing to wipe out the few remaining Oto ninja still hanging around. This in and of itself was giving the Iwa ninja a great morale boost, especially since some of the Konoha-allied shinobi that were killed by the overwhelming amount of Iwa shinobi were some that'd done the most damage in the last war.

Things were also bleak for those away from the war zone. Many of the villages that were taking part in the conflict were suffering from the main problem such an event causes; with the majority of their forces out in the war front, their village is left exposed for attack, by anything from rival villages also engaged with the war, to some skilled bandit getting bold during the lack of major resistance. These incidents caused mounting problems for said villages troops, as supplies and or reinforcements were either delayed or weakened that it'd been better in the long run if such commodities had never even left the village. As such, many of those villages were required to hire mercenaries to alleviate the problem.

Villages such as Moyagakure…

=0000000=

**_Moyagukure's Main Street:_**

"AAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

"RUN! RUN!"

"GET OUT OF THE WAY!"

Panic had erupted onto the main street as some of the few ninjas that had remained within the village were effortlessly killed in front of the Moya civilians' eyes, before they had fled into the shelter of the buildings. The culprits, a bandit group lead by a team of B-Rank missing-nin, had decided to strike at the relatively defenceless village. It was a once in a lifetime chance to raid an actual ninja village, and this gang certainly wasn't to let it pass by.

"Ok boys!" the leader, a somewhat heavyset woman, yelled out to the bandits as she indicated to the numerous shops and hostels in front of them. "Clean house!" and with that the lot of them scattered, some swiping at the valuables that'd been left behind by the villagers, some breaking down doors and either stealing directly from the stores, or sicking themselves upon any villagers that they'd found. Some of the villagers the bandits found, the lucky ones, were killed almost immediately.

The looting and pillaging done by the bandits, coupled with the screams and cries of the villagers, served to incite a greater thrill within the raiders, the results of which were an escalation in their acts. Which was why two unlucky members of the group, who'd only thus far managed to hit the stores that were either devoid of life and/or valuables, were smashing through the doors of a cheap hotel in mad fever, hoping to find something worthwhile, yet merely stumbling across empty rooms. Had they been in their right minds, they'd've noticed that some of the rooms looked as if the occupants had left days before the attack. However the two would only realise this fact, all too late.

Back to the search, it hadn't taken the two of them long to find something, for as the duo were leaving, the taller one of the two managed to spot a faint, purple, yet slightly ominous, glow emanating from a door that'd previously past, one that led down towards the basement. When both were at the door, they could hear someone, female if they had to guess, muttering some kind of chant. Probably a prayer or something. Manically grinning at one another the shorter one pounded on the door. "Hey! Get out here now!" he cried, as he partner joined in with "Kami won't save you now girlie!"

"NO! STAY AWAY!" the girl screamed from behind the door, desperation flooding her words. This merely caused the madness to increase within the two.

"Well if you're not coming out…"

"THE WE'RE COMING IN!" the duo said, splitting their lines, before destroying the offending door that dared to stand between them and their prize.

"NO! STAY OUT! YOU'LL RUIN THE RITUAL!" they heard the girl shout at them, which puzzled the bandit duo to no end.

The puzzlement rose exponentially upon seeing exactly what was causing the glow.

The girl, a young thing, no older than 12, who appeared to be a princess judging by the way she styled her dark blue, yet oddly short, hair, was leaning over what appeared to be a body with a cloth covering it, that was situated within the centre of a massive sealing array. It was this body that was causing the glow. Now that they were within the room as it, the bandits had lost all feeling save for pure dread as they were bathed in the less ominous, now unholy light. All throughout their being the two could feel the unnaturalness of what the girl was doing. As the taller one took a step away, he almost tripped on something. With his eyes adjusting to the gloom of the surroundings, he saw what appeared to be severely desecrated, gangrenous, yet still living bodies. So shocked was the taller one, he didn't hear his partner question him, nor did he register that said partner had tried to shake him out of his stunned state, only to see what it was that'd claimed his senses, and then proceed to violently project the contents on his stomach.

The girl, whom now they could see had the soulless, pupiless eyes of one possessed, continued to shout at the bandits. "LEAVE OR ELSE YOU'LL RUIN THE RITUAL!" her voice sounding as crazed as any of those bat-shit insane Jashinists that'd been the rage some years back, before the idiots got themselves wiped out.

"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING!?" the shorter bandit cried out, after recovering his constitution enough to not have a repeat performance.

"Naruto-kun needs to be healed… He was badly injured and nobody could heal him… But Hinata-chan can, Hinata-chan knows she can… The scroll said she could… and the scroll wouldn't lie to Hinata-chan…" the girl said, voice indicating that she was no longer one of the sane. The two bandits had seen it countless times with their 'spoils', wives of some of the men they'd slaughtered, and then 'spoiled', their minds couldn't take the horror of their new reality, and thus they shattered, holding onto the laughable delusion that their dead lovers would save them, an that everything would be back to the way it was. It wasn't unheard of for some of the more intolerant men in the clan to cut out the tongues of those bitches just to get them to shut up for a while. It was something the two bandits currently with the girl had laughed over countless times in the past. Now, however, there was no humour to be had in this, as if the wraiths of all those women had coalesced into a single being, and was determined to do exactly what they had described within their delusions…

And it terrified the bandits.

With a monumental amount of willpower, the shorter bandit turned back, shook his friend out of his stupefied mindset, and said to the guy "We have to stop that crazy bitch!"

As soon as the two moved to do so however, they soon realised what a terrible decision it was, as the girl lashed out at the both of them, biting, spitting, stabbing, clawing, even at points paralyzing them, all the while screeching at the top of her lungs "NO! NO! NO! NONONONONONO! I WON'T LET YOU TAKE AWAY MY NARUTO-KUN! NOO!"

"GAT AHOLD OF HER!" one of the bandits cried out, as he tried bashing her skull, which, along with the rest of her head, had latched itself upon his arm, whilst the other was trying to avoid the kunai she kept swiping wildly in his general direction.

As the two tried to subdue the girl, neither she nor they realised that, in the process of the scuffle, some of the bandits' blood had landed upon the sheet. As the blood soaked through, the purple glow suddenly grew to a very sickly green, as the body shrouded by the cloth, began to stir.

It happened far too quickly after that. An explosion of light, causing those living and mobile to suddenly stop. A horrifying cracking sound, as rigor mortis is forcibly unset. The shallow rasps as decayed lungs started to breathe once more. And then the body rose, resembling a puppet with some of it's strings cut, whilst the others pick up the slack, and when those still conscious saw them, the cold dead eyes, they suppressed the urge to run in terror, for fear of drawing the thing before them's attention. It's skin, a sickening myriad of gaunt, pale white, bile green, and blackened purple. It's hair, a greasy, putrid collection of brown and yellow follicles. It's stench was of mouldy soil mixed with decay. But the worst of it was how it moved, it was unnatural, as if a macabre imitation of the movements of the living, that would have, could have been funny, if the thing didn't look like a human. All of these features were accented and enhanced by the glow, which refused to vanish, as it gave them the sense of something that none on the earth should ever comprehend. If they were beings of the impure world, then what stood before them was something from the tainted world.

When it stared at the three, what ever passed for awareness in it noted that the two elder ones were trying and failing to contain their terror, where as the younger was weeping, but not in fear… If the thing before the three had any semblance of it's old existence it would have said that the younger was showing joy…

As the thing continued to move forward, the two bandits finally managed to get their wits about them and decided to flee the monstrosity before them, only to discover that they couldn't move. It was as if the light and the thing born… no, risen from it had sapped their bodies' ability to move, to the point where they couldn't breathe, could blink, couldn't even make the tiniest of twitches. The only things they could move were their eyes, and their hearts, the later of which was pounding like a jackhammer on speed. The spell held the two, as the girl continued to stare at the thing she had called forth, just as entranced as her offenders, though with love and bliss instead of fear and horror, all the while, whispering to herself "Naruto-kun…" over and over.

When the thing had finally drawn so close to the bandits they could see the vile muscles moving the grotesque flesh, the thing started to devour the two, slowly, as if savouring a banquette in it's honour. Though they couldn't move, it didn't stop the pain they felt whilst being eaten alive, if anything, it enhanced it, so much so that if one were to gaze inside their minds, all they would experience was the screams.

Thus the two foolish bandits died, mad, and screaming, in silence…

=0000000=

That was it, she'd done it, Hinata had done it. She'd healed Naruto, brought him back from his condition.

She'd been heart broken when she'd heard the news back at the Tower of Death. She and her team had managed to reach the tower with both scrolls, and were listening to Kurenai-sensei, whom, had been summoned by the opening of both scrolls upon arrival. Kurenai-sensei had been halfway through telling them what the plaque meant when an ANBU came to tell her something. In a moment of weakness and shock, Kurenai-sensei had said that Naruto-kun had been killed. Hinata-chan had been so hurt then, and when the exams had been suspended, half to hold a funeral, half because of who they said had killed Naruto-kun, Hinata-chan had been hurt even more. The only thing that was in Hinata-chan's head was pain, heart-ache, and confusion. Why was everyone lying, she had thought. Why can't they heal Naruto-kun, she had thought. Why were they putting Naruto-kun in a box, she had thought. It was all too much for Hinata-chan, who couldn't understand why everyone was lying. She had found a scroll, one that told her how to heal Naruto-kun. It was magic for Hinata-chan. Though Hinata-chan couldn't read and or half of it, the scroll provided simplified information on those portions, even on some that she could read and understand. Hinata-chan went tell everyone, and when Hinata-chan told people, they said that there was no such way, that the scroll wouldn't help Hinata-chan. They all kept lying to Hinata-chan. Just like they had made fun of Naruto-kun. Just like they had hurt Naruto-kun. Just like they were hurting Naruto-kun right now.

So, Hinata-chan did what Hinata-chan knew was best; she rescued Naruto-kun from the evil clutches of the village, and she took him to a quite place to heal. But the scroll was too difficult to understand for Hinata-chan. It required things, things Hinata-chan didn't have, things Hinata-chan knew Naruto-kun would hate her for getting, but so maybe if Hinata-chan healed Naruto-kun, Naruto-kun wouldn't hate Hinata-chan… So she got the ingredients, but then came the seal. Hinata-chan was never any good with seals, but luckily for Hinata-chan, the scroll told her what to do, as it did with so many other things, but she had needed time, and… 'things'… desperate 'things'… disgusting 'things'… But Hinata-chan would be fine, once Naruto-kun was all better.

Yet when those two men, probably to tell Hinata-chan more lies, had burst in and tried to stop Hinata-chan, she had thought the ritual failed, and that Naruto-kun would never be healed, ever again. Yet here standing before Hinata-chan, helping Hinata-chan, protecting Hinata-chan, was Naruto-kun, as he always was. The way he looked at Hinata-chan, the way he stared at Hinata-chan, the way he touched Hinata-chan, the way he held Hinata-chan… It was all the same…

And when Naruto-kun spoke again, after Hinata-chan had healed him, Hinata-chan was overcome by such joy that she embraced him so powerfully that she almost didn't hear the words "…where am I…?" before the door slammed open once more, and some of the nuke-nin that'd ended up leading bandits rushed in, only to discover the same scene as their now deceased companions.

"Oh Kami, what is that thing?!"

"Guys… look… *BLERGH*"

"Kill it! Kill them both!"

That was the last thing anybody heard those bandit-nin say, before they were eviscerated by the thing that'd been Naruto Uzumaki…

=0000000=

**A.N. I don't know why I do these things… I mean I have three fanfics I'm stuck on (mostly due to no internet connection when I ACTUALLY WANTED TO WRITE!), so of course the most logical thing to do is start writing yet. Another. FANFIC!**

**Ok, I think I'm good… Am I good…? Yes, yes I believe that I am, ok then. So yeah this was the first chapter of my 'Naruto is undead' fic, and you know what, screw showing how he died (at least at first). The way I figure it, this story can only start after he's died, show the aftermath of it so to speak… So that's what I did. Hell, actually getting it into the right spot, story wise, was a massive pain, and it was kicking my ass day in, day out. But, thanks to Morninglight, I finally got it in the end.**


End file.
